5 Harry Potter Fake News You Probably Believed

The reason why so many people are fascinated by the Harry Potter universe is that, even if you are the greatest Potterhead in the world, there are still so many things that you don't know. With so much information available, it is not surprising to see people believing in crazy things written by the many Rita Skeeters in this world. And today, we are here to demystify them. Make sure you watch this video until the end to know which joke ended up in a book because today, we are showing you 5 Harry Potter fake news you probably believed.

J.K. Rowling gave a role to Evanna Lynch.

You have probably already seen this post about Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna, who beat anorexia when she was younger. It was accompanied by a picture of the actress with the book and read:

"She was disappointed that she would miss the book release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as she had been hospitalized. However, the hospital released her the morning of the launch for a few hours and a local bookstore arranged for her to receive a copy signed by J.K. Rowling. She showed up wearing a Harry Potter T-shirt, and blue nail polish that had "Harry Potter" written on every other nail and a Golden Snitch on the rest. She also had paired-on Harry Potter glasses and had written "I love Harry Potter" down her arms. J.K. Rowling said that if she beat anorexia she could audition for the role of Luna. She did and she got the role."

But both the actress and the author actually said that this story is not entirely true, as reported by The Irish Times. At age 11, she was hospitalized with an eating disorder and spent the next years in clinics. She had to escape from this world, and this is why she turned to Harry Potter and fell in love with Luna Lovegood.

"I loved Luna because she was different. She wasn’t making a statement or doing it to be defiant. And she didn’t feel out of place because she wasn’t judging herself or others. I’d read her and I’d feel safe and relaxed. I didn’t think: Oh, she’s just like me. I thought: I want to be just like that.”

As a Harry Potter fan, she started writing to J.K. Rowling, and the author wrote back. This is how they became pen pals. The writer did offer her the opportunity to work as an extra on Harry Potter, but Evanna declined because she was looking for something bigger. Rowling also gave her the address of a casting agent, but this is not how the young girl got the role. She just saw the open casting call, like any other actress, and was chosen after a series of call-back. It's only after this that J.K. Rowling found out that her friend was going to be part of the cast.

“The producer told me that she [Rowling] saw my name on the list of people who had been cast and went to check it was the same address she had been writing to. I hadn’t told her because it all happened so quickly.”

Evanna Lynch wasn't only strong enough to beat anorexia. She also totally deserved to be chosen for the part, and J.K. Rowling had simply been a friend that supported her when she was struggling with an eating disorder.

Baby Harry is the actor who played Albus Potter.

You have probably seen this fun fact circulating in the Harry Potter fandom. People said that the baby who played the boy who lived in Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone is the same boy who played Albus Severus Potter at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. But just because you have seen this everywhere doesn't mean it's true.

In the first film, baby Harry Potter was played by the Saunders triplets, two boys and one girl, who were credited as a single actor. Their first name wasn't revealed. In the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Albus Severus Potter was played by Arthur Bowen. The funniest thing about this is that the young Harry you can see in the fake news is actually the baby we saw in the last movie, not the first one. His name is Toby Papworth. They couldn't get it more wrong!

There will be a Harry Potter Go (or not?).

In 2016, people went crazy for Pokémon Go. The game had about 45,000,000 daily players at one point and made more than $1,200,000,000 in sales. It was the first mainstream hit for an augmented reality game, as you could see virtual creatures appear on the screen of your phone. It looked just like magic, and this is probably one of the reasons why Ashtyn Hannon started a petition to encourage Warner Bros to make a similar game inspired by Harry Potter. You could read:

The possibilities are endless. In a Harry Potter augmented reality game, you could cast spells in real life. Accio Firebolt! And have a wizard duel with your friends, expelliarmus could disable their app for a few seconds! Who is your second?In honor of the new movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, you could search for magical creatures, like hippogriffs, and dragons, and goblins, and acromantulas. Follow the spiders Ron. The app could be a fantastic (pun intended) promotion for the movie.

It just looked like a dream come true and almost 70,000 people supported this project. This is how, as soon as July 2016, people started saying that Niantic Inc. was working on a Harry Potter-themed game. It was hard to not believe in this fake news as Stargaze Media even created a trailer for the game. Unfortunately, these claims were quickly dismissed as a hoax because the creator was still working on Pokémon Go at that time. Whenever someone talked about their enthusiasm, Potterheads replied that Accio Harry Potter Go was nothing but a fantasy.

But it turns out that these pessimists are now wrong because Niantic Inc. changed their mind, as reported by BBC News. As he now has more time to work on new projects, the developer decided to collaborate with Warner Bros Interactive, who owns the video game rights to the Harry Potter series. The game will be released under a new label, Portkey Games, inspired by the objects that transport wizards from place to place in the famous books. The game will be called Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and the launch date hasnt' been announced yet. But the only thing we know comes from the official website:

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite uses state-of-the-art augmented reality technology to reveal the magic all around us. Explore real-world neighborhoods and cities to discover mysterious artifacts, learn to cast spells, and encounter legendary beasts and iconic characters along the way!

Make sure you sign up to Harry Potter: Wizards Unite to be the first one to play the game! There is only one fake news that actually became true, and we are really happy to see that it is this one!

J.K. Rowling said this on Twitter

In 2015, College Humor writers, Willie Muse and Amir Khan, decided to have a little fun with J. K. Rowling's twitter account in J. K. Rowling's Twitter Account is Out of Control with no explanation. It all started with a real tweet for the author, who clearly knew too much about the Harry Potter universe:

"@jk_rowling my wife said there are no Jews at Hogwarts. I'm a Jew so I assume she said it to be the only magical 1 in the family. Thoughts?" "@benjaminroffman Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish wizard."

The author knew so many things about the universe that Khan decided to take it even further and created fake tweets by Photoshopping J.K Rowling's twitter account. Here are the best tweets we found:

"@JK_Rowling If Dumbledore really is gay, is he a top or a bottom? Haha!" "BuhddaDinosaur Dumbledore likes all manner of sex but generally speaking he tends to be a top. Thanks for asking."

"@JK_Rowling Since wizards wear different clothes does that mean that they wear different kinds of underwear too?" "@DumbleBee No. Wizards choose from the same options as muggles do. Harry is primarily a boxers man while Ron prefers briefs. Nothing exciting. The only noteworthy person I can mention here is Lupin who had exceedingly large genitalia. As such, he would switch between wearing no underwear at all and wearing compression shorts that kept his balls from whipping around too much."

"@JK_Rowling Does Hogwarts have sex ed classes?" "@MoaningTurtle Unfortunately no. Wizards tend to be a little conservative with such things. Of course, like all teens, they eventually figure things out and experiment with their sexuality. For example, group masturbation sessions are exceedingly common in the Hogwarts dormitories, particularly Hufflepuff."

These fake tweets were so funny that they were shared all around the web. But out of context, they looked so realistic that people started believing that they were true. The real J.K. Rowling even had to say on Twitter that these were fakes. And you probably believed some of the simplest ones before reading the rest of the article. But it got worse when a writer didn't fact check these.

Sprout and Flitwick used to date.

One of Willie Muse's fake tweets included:

"@JK_Rowling Have any of the Hogwarts teachers ever dated?" "@CedricFan01 Of course! Sprout and Flitwick had a long-term relationship! They broke up but remain friends."

This fake tweet was so real and looked so simple that a writer actually believed that it was true. The writer Willie Muse said that he received a tweet from @ibid11962 who proved that someone took this tweet too seriously.

"@Williesillie2 It looks like one of your jokes has entered into official Harry Potter canon. Congratulations! (And also some heavy criticism to whomever at @BloomsburyBooks was responsible for fact-checking this."

And he shared a picture of the 2017 Official Hufflepuff House edition Philosopher's Stone. In this book, you can read:

"Did you know? Professor Sprout had a long-term relationship with fellow teacher Professor Flitwick. Sadly it didn't work out but they remain friends."

To this, Bloomsbury UK replied:

"We are aware of this error and it has already been corrected for reprints of relevant house editions."

If you want to read more about this, Willie Muse tells the whole story in Harry Potter Accidentally Published a Prank We Did and Now It's Canon. Don't believe everything that you see. The only one that we can trust is the real J.K. Rowling!

Do you want to hear more about what we do know about the next Fantastic Beasts movie? Make sure you read "Fantastic Beasts 2: 7 Things Harry Potter Fans Expect to See."